Every year Center Theatre Group employs Teaching Artists to assist in the planning, implementation and evaluation of one or more assigned education and engagement programs. This year our Teaching Artists will work hands on in the development of our Target Young Audiences Program. These talented Artists will be participating in a range of activities such as leading exercises and discussions at our Pre-Performance Conferences, assisting in the creation of our Discovery Guides and Education Resources, and interacting with students at our matinee performances.
Educators participating in our Young Audiences Program can host a Teaching Artist in your class! Our Teaching Artists are available to lead sessions in schools or in other group settings on an ‘as requested’ basis. Designed to assist you in preparing your students to see the show and/or in delving deeper into the play after seeing the performance, the Teaching Artist can come to your classroom for up to five hours to facilitate discussion and creative exploration. And the best part is Center Theatre Group offers this component at no cost to the school.
To schedule a Teaching Artist session,
Contact: Debra Piver, Associate Director of Education at 213.972.8028 or dpiver@centertheatregroup.org.
CTG is proud to host the 2009-2010 Teaching Artists in Residence.
Originally from Maryland, Lynn Clark moved to Los Angeles after receiving her BFA in Drama from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Theater credits include: No Place To Be Somebody at the Matrix Theater, directed by Bill Duke; Branches Among The Stars at Ensemble Studio Theater West; The Misanthrope with The Onstage Company (of which she was a founding member), directed by Mel Shapiro. Film and television credits include: a co-starring appearance in My Fellow Americans; guest star appearances on Seinfeld and Friends; series regular roles on CBS’s Grapevine and Banner Times, and ABC’s The Monroes. Lynn recently completed the Center Theatre Group’s Dana Teaching Artist Institute and the Teacher Credential Program at California State University, Los Angeles. Lynn sings with the Golden Bridge Community Choir, led by Maggie Wheeler and Emile Hassan Dyer.
Leslie Ishii is a teaching artist with Center Theater Group’s Young Audiences Program. She is an actor, director, playwright and teaches at East West Players Asian American Theater. She is also getting her certification in Catherine Fitzmaurice Voicework. She is the founder of leslieishiiblog.blogspot.com and theselfstarter.com websites. Most recently Leslie has been seen on Flash Forward, Desperate Housewives, in The New Generation FAME, and recurring on LOST as Lara Chang.
Since 1992, East West Players Asian American Theater has also been a home for Leslie to act, teach and develop curriculum to empower Asian artists. She also taught from 1998 to 2007 at University of California, Irvine in the Drama Department. She has also taught as a guest artist at The American Conservatory Theater.
Marcos Najera is an actor & journalist based in Los Angeles and Phoenix. He is proud to be a Dana Institute Fellow and teaching artist for The Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group.
As an actor, he recently appeared in Touch The Water for Cornerstone Theatre Company. He is currently working as a creative associate with Anna Deavere Smith on her new play Let Me Down Easy. His own solo work-in-progress, JABON, chronicles the oral histories of people punished for speaking Spanish in Arizona schools.
As a journalist, he reports for NPR member station KJZZ 91.5FM in Arizona. He also contributes to WGBH’s The World, NPR’s LatinoUSA and Sirius Satellite Radio’s OutQ News. He’s penned two regular columns, “Najera Nites” for Latino Perspectives Magazine and “Brown Town” for Phoenix New Times/Village Voice Media. Marcos holds a B.A./M.A. from Stanford University.
Omar Ricks is a Ph.D. student in theater performance at UC Berkeley. Some previous work: Stage – Agamemnon, Big River, Bring Love to My Doorstep (at Guthrie Lab), Drip (reading with Crowded Fire Theater Company), Kiss Me, Kate, Love Letters, Once on This Island, Othello, Peer Gynt, The Piano Lesson, A Raisin in the Sun, The Seagull, Seven Guitars, The Tempest, Who Do You Love (reading at Pasadena Playhouse). Television – The Shield (FX channel, Season Six), 2007 NBA All-Star Game on TNT, 2007 NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
In addition to performing, he enjoys combining theater, education, and critical thinking, which he has done with the Cornerstone and Unusual Suspects theater companies. He is excited to join the Center Theater Group family this season as a Teaching Artist.
Photo Credit
Photo by Ana Rose O’Halloran
